The Age of Epic

Less than two years ago, Johns Hopkins Medicine signed on to Epic and leapt into the future of health care. The new electronic medical record system would integrate ambulatory and inpatient records, improve the quality of care and meet the demands of health care reform. Since then, Epic project leaders, their teams and many others have gone full steam, building digital templates, designing workflows, training nearly 3,000 staff and converting patient data by the millions.

Edgar Calderon, lead clinical specimen tech, and Yasmin Johnson, Epic super-user, stand by to help in JHOC on the first day of the Epic launch.

On April 4, the first wave of outpatient practices migrated to Epic. Kudos to all, including Johns Hopkins Community Physicians practices, school of medicine providers who practice in a JHCP suite, Johns Hopkins at Odenton, and Wilmer at Frederick, Bel Air, Bethesda and Wyman Park.

Much more hard work lies ahead. The Epic migration will continue at a brisk pace, with three more ambulatory rollouts through mid-August and June go-live dates for inpatient care at Howard County General Hospital and Sibley Memorial Hospital.

Leaping into the future is never easy. Plenty of challenges remain as Johns Hopkins Medicine moves toward a central database for all medical records. As you and your co-workers face those challenges, keep in mind the big Epic picture, summarized below.